Sovereign

Various developers have tinkered with the idea of an MMORTS, but SOE's Sovereign got further than most in making it a reality. By giving each player a home world to which to retreat when signing off the game, valuable units and hard-won resources would not be in danger should homework or a Charmed re-run keep you from playing. Actual battles would take place on various planets, each holding from 15 to 500 players, depending on the size. A complex system of specialization would affect how effective you could be in battle, trading, diplomacy, and the like, as the game's various Houses (think "guilds") used might, economic power, espionage, and force of numbers to gain power. The game ultimately never made it out of the early development stages and was cancelled in 2001.